1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a film feeding apparatus in a camera adapted to be loaded with a film cartridge of the type in which the leading end of film is not exposed out of a feeding port.
2. Related Background Art
A film cartridge of the structure shown, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,832,275 or U.S. Pat. No. 4,834,306 has heretofore been proposed as a film cartridge 502 comprising a cylindrical portion 502a having therein a spool shaft containing a roll of photographic film 501 therein, and a film feeding portion 502b extending integrally therewith in the tangential direction thereof and containing the leading end side of the film in a straight state. The construction disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,832,275 is schematically shown in FIG. 19 of the accompanying drawings. According to this cartridge 502, the spool shaft provided in the cylindrical portion 502a is rotatively driven in the feed direction of the film 501 (the direction of solid-line arrow in the figure) by the shaft end portion thereof (the spline portion indicated by 502c in the figure), whereby the film 501 is fed out from the leading end side thereof through a feed port in the end of the feeding portion 502, as indicated by dots-and-dash line in the figure, and the spool shaft is rotatively driven in the rewinding direction (the broken-line arrow in the figure), whereby the film 501 is rewound and the leading end of the film can be wound into the feeding portion 502b. According to such cartridge structure, when the cartridge is to be loaded into a camera or when the cartridge is to be taken out with the film taken up after the termination of photographing, the leading end of the film 501 is in a state in which it has been drawn into the cartridge 502 and moreover, the feeding of the film 501 can be automatically accomplished by the spool shaft being rotatively driven by an electric motor or the like and therefore, the handling of the film 501, such as the loading of the film 501 into a camera, becomes easy to the operator. In this example, there is illustratively shown a case where perforations 501a are continuously formed in the upper and lower side edges of the film 501 as in the 135 type film.
However, there is no publication which discloses camera structure which can be loaded with a film cartridge 502 of this type and the internal mechanism thereof, and particularly a specific example of a mechanism by which the film 501 is fed out of the cartridge 502 and is wound up one frame by one and is rewound into the cartridge 502, and the advent of a camera provided with a feeding mechanism, a winding mechanism and a rewinding mechanism for film capable of causing the advantages of the cartridge structure as described above to be displayed has been desired.
Particularly, what is required for constructing a camera of this kind is to develop the structure of an automatic loading mechanism called auto-loading. That is, for the film cartridge of the described type, the use of a camera's automatic loading mechanism using the well-known 135 type film cartridge in which the leading end of film is drawn out by a predetermined amount is practically impossible because the film feeding structure differs. Accordingly, it has been desired that a film feeding apparatus which can automatically feed out to and wound onto the take-up spool side such film 501 having its leading end introduced into the cartridge 502 simply by the cartridge being loaded into a camera and can accomplish the automatic loading of the film stably and reliably be provided by a simplest possible construction.